>> good morning 37 i'. i'm stephanie sy. these are the stories that we're following at this hour. fire is burning out of control at yosemite park and forcing thousands to flee. san diego mayor filner is struggling to keep his job after more than a dozen women came forward. and in syria chemical weapons have been used to kill

hundreds of people. now many are calling on u.n. to take a closer look. more on richard nixon as the watergate scandal unfolded. >> wildfires are spreading across much of the western united states. right now there are more than 50 of them burning in ten states. that includes at least nine new once that were first reported on wednesday. the flames have scorched thousands of acres of land, and the fight to contain them has cost already over a billion dollars. we have more on one of the most stubborn fires burning near yosemite national park. >> we've been told the rim fire has spread a little today, but the containment number is still standing at 5%. what that means is that firefighters did make some progress in another part of this

16,000-acre wildfire. so it is still very much a wild wildfire. 5% contained. the local county board of supervisors has asked governor brown to declare a state emergency. they're seeking state assistance. the firefighters today are from the federal level, and what we've seen is a situation called key l 5, preparedness level 5, it means that the government is stretched to its limits was for as resources. there are 18 fires burning across the united states, and they've spent this fire season about $1 billion so far. >> melissa chan, thank you. there has been a growing chorus of voices calling for san diego's mayor bob filner to resign. a dozen women have come forward about sexual harassment. one of them filed a lawsuit

against him and they have struck a settlement. i know they have been instructed not to comment. approve the dea, then details will be made public. >> and whether a resignation is part of this deal. i'm curious if anyone has come forward in support of mayor filner. >> mayor filner does have his supporters. he does have the support of some labor unions in san diego. they are saying that filner has been denied due process. the campaign filner is

underway gloria will step in as acting mayor until elections are held in san diego. >> what about some of these women. the latest resignation.

>> jennifer reporting from los angeles. thank you, jennifer. now to syria, the united nations is calling for an investigation into claims the syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people, killing hundreds. we want to warn you that some of the pictures you're about to see are extremely graphic. they show people being treated while others are motionlessness. some unable to breathe. al jazeera cannot independently verify these videos. >> reporter: this girl is one of the survivors.

i'm alive, i'm alive, she cries. she's surrounded by hundreds of dead and dieing. all with no obvious injuries, no wounds, no blood. whatever killed them didn't discriminate. most of the bodies in this room are of babies and children. >> the number of victims of children and others is very high. i've carried in my own hands 50 dead children. the worse thing about what happened is the nature of the attack and the ignorance of people who didn't know what to do when the attack took place. >> reporter: opposition groups say these people are the victims of attacks using chemical weapons, and they point the finger of blame at the syrian government. damascus denies it saying the opposition is making false claims. the alleged chemical attack happened 3:00 a.m. wednesday morning. government forces firing objected loaded with some sort of chemical weapons into an area

of countryside east of the capitol damascus. many of those who survived were lest gasping and with a wide range of symptoms. al jazeera cannot verify the video, but a chemical weapons expert who viewed it said there is evidence that a toxic agent may have been released. >> the symptoms, the convulsion, pinpoint pupils and the death, is usually synonymous with nerve agent. sarin nerve agent will destroy your nerves so your heart, lung, etc. stop working. that's why we see these statu statuesque pictures of the dead. similar to what we saw in 1988 8 when they gassed the kurds and killed 5,000 in the space of an hour. >> reporter: 20 u.n. chemical

experts are in damascus to investigate use of chemical weapons. syrian opposition groups want the u.n. team to conduct an independent investigation into what happened in eastern guta. >> it's not the first time for the regime to use chemical weapons. today's crime is a cornerstone of the regime to continue killing the syrian people. >> but the syrian government was quick to deny the reports. >> everything that has been said is ridiculous and naive and unscientific an. we mean what we say, there has not been use of the weapon at all. >> reporter: remarks that show the deeply divided members in syria. >> the members of the council

with the determination of the secretary general to insure a sure row impartial investigations. >> reporter: 35 member nation versus written to secretary general ban ki-moon urging him to widen the mandate on the ground in syria to include this latest attack. but because that would require permission from the syrian government that would take time. >> reporter: experts say time is off of the sense. they fear proof of the weapons is being buried with those who succumbed to it. >> now to egypt where the country's long time leader hosni mubarak could leave the prison for some time. the 85-year-old has been held under maximum security since he was forced out of power two years ago. but an egyptian court ordered him released while he's being

investigated on the charges that he ordered the killing of civilians. in nortmore than 50,000 souh koreans work there kaesong closed due to their nuclear prime minister but both country agreed to open operations at the jointly run facility. new orleans is taking steps to avoid some of the problems caused by hurricane katrina. they're rolling out these safety sculptures. they'll be used to show residents which roads to take to get out of harms way. they'll replace the small signs that were too hard to find and hard to read. ahead a former leader accused of bribery, corruption, and abuse of power. >> meteorologist: we're seeing better conditions across the united states in terms of rain.

i'll bring you all the details of that as well as the rain that is coming in to washington, d. washington, d.c..

>> bo xilai was once a rising star in the chinese communist party but today he goes on trial for corruption, bribery and abuse of power all tinged with a tail otale of murder. he plummet from the party elite.

>> bo xilai last public appearance as a member of the communist party in march last year. his next should be as an accused criminal in a courtroom in a city that exemplifies a stunning fall from grace. he serve as mayor, and as china's commerce minister. the scandal that would bring him down came years later when he was party secretary of the southwestern city. in november 2011 the british businessman hey ward was found dead. bo xilai and his wife gu kailai, his death would be seen as murder after his police chief ran to a nearby consulate with an extraordinary account of hey ward's killing. gu kailai admitted to pointing heyward and was given a

suspended death penalty. now bo xilai is being cleansed of his traces. >> you really don't have to look too hard to find ways that bo's ways are quietly being expunged from this city. people used to gather at his office to sing red songs, now we find signs saying such sing something found too noisy. >> the police presence is now substantially more relaxed. it's hard to wipe out concrete legacy such as the housing built for the poor. >> he was a good leader. i hope he doesn't get punished too severely. >> support extends to many still in the upper reaches of the party, which is why some believe he'll get a relatively light sentence of 20 years. >> the communist party, this bickering amongst the factions will always be there.

it's just that for the sake of party unity, i think a decision has been settled for his major political rival. >> his career over, a life at best under house arrest, there are some determined not to let this one-time star of chinese politics slip silently away. >> reporter: a second session of this trial is now under way. it's a few minutes old, and we hear that bo xilai will be charged and be questioned on charges of about $3 million in bribes taken from an influential businessman. what is fascinating, what has already emerged from the first session a much lower amounter $150,000 in three separate gifts alleged to come from another businessman, but bo xilai is denying that. he said he didn't take the money. the man involved was someone he knew from some 20 years earlier when they were both sent to a factory during the revolution,

but he gave him no favors. did nothing especially for this man, he simply worked with a local government-run company, and bo xilai was trying to assist that company. so the very fact, not so much the details, but the fact that bo xilai is denying at least some of the charges against him, perhaps gives you a sense as to why it has taken so long to bring this trial to court, and also gives a sense that bo xilai does not want to go down entirely without a fight. >> china's court proceedings are generally not publicized. yet a number of details including the charges have emerged. why is that? >> i think very much the chinese communist party wants to say this is a criminal case involving a man accused of a very serious wrongdoing. the corruption charge of about

$750,000 o$750,000, the briberyf more than $3 million tempting to intervene in the police investigation and accusations that his wife killed this british businessman heyward. she was sentenced last year. a lot of people feel this is deeply motivated by politics, a lot of his supporters and politicians were here holding up maoist banners. others saying this was not open, fair justice because they were being denied fair access. he said when he came in, i hope the judge can give me a fair and justice trial i in accordance wh our country's laws. >> thank you, harry. turning now to the u.s. and the case of army private bradley manning. he's responsible for the largest leak of classified information in american history. he was sentenced wednesday to 35

years in prison. the former intelligence analyst was arrested in 2010 for leaking more than 700,000 government documents to wikileaks. the judge convicted him of most charges in july, but he was found not guilty of aiding the enemy. manning will be credited for more than three years he has already spent in custody. lawyers for army staff sergeant robert bales have begun to make their case for leniency during his court-martial. bales has admitted killing 16 civilians in afghanistan last year. a military judge is hearing testimony on whether he should go to prison for life with no chance of parole. prosecution called many witnesses including an afghan man who lost six of his search children in the massacre. bale's brother testified on his behalf, calling him a good father. japan's watchdog agency said a leak of contaminated water at the fukushima power plant may be

the start of another crisis. there has been a series of leaks of radioactive water from the plant. the leak is the worst since last year. 300 cubic feet of water with high levels of radiation is leaking from a storage tank at that plant. the toxic leak has not been plugged. the water is so contaminated someone standing too close to it could get five years worth of normal radiation in a matter of seconds. we're live in tokyo now with more on this deepening crisis in fukushima, and anita, is this contained, stabilized at all at this plant? reactors cool in the wake of three of them melting down.

so this is the water used to treat the problem they now have. they can't even keep that water secure. the leaks you're referring to aren't only in these tanks, there are more than a thousand of the that there was also leaking between the reactors themselves with channels drainage channels between the six reactors, this was a month ago, where they found water running down between them that itself was highly contaminated with radiation. we have to remember that this plant is barely 500 meters from the sea. and it's in an area of high

rainfall. the water table is close to the surface. it's quite a spongy absorbent area and hard to keep secure. they now realize they're far from containing the problem. situation. thank you for your report. [♪ music ] >> well, this morning we are looking at the showers here across the southeastern part of the united states. they're beginning to dissipate a little bit, and that is really good news compared to what we've seen the last couple of days. before we get there i want to take you to the northeast where showers are coming into play here across parts of virginia, west virginia, and as well as noodle dell and maryland. these showers could be heavy at times so your morning compute could be rougher there. let's take a look at temperatures today. your high temperatures for new york, 86 degrees. down towards washington, 88.

up towards boston we expect to see 70 degrees. across the board those temperatures are going to be coming down by the time we get to the weekend and it will be a beautiful weekend across the big apple. on sunday, a sunny day at 81 degrees there. down towards the southeast, as i said the rain showers are getting better but they're not completely out of the picture. we're looking at a few flood watches still in affect mostly for the southern part of georgia and south carolina. parts of florida we expect to see some showers staying to the forecast. unfortunately towards alabama that's where we expect to see some of the heaviest rain over the next day. today, atlanta, 86 degrees for you. it's going to be a warm day at 90. and houston, 94 degrees there. the forecast across the board from atlanta well showers are going to be a problem from thursday to fry, but things are going to get better. by the time we get to sunday we

want to get to piedmont park, it will be 82 degrees and cloudy there. down towards dallas we're going to see showers to the south of you, not much of an accumulation in your area. the temperature today, how about 98 degrees. san antonio not far find at 97 and corpu corpus christi at 91. >> thank you. the nixon recordings released. the final tape sh shed efforts o squash the watergate scandal.

>> four former vanderbilt university football players are charged with raping an unconscious woman. they please not guilty at their arraignment. jonathan martin has the story. >> reporter: vanderbilt university is a school with a solid academic reputation. it's football program coming off a record winning streak with high hopes with the upcoming season. but now they face a hurdle, a rape scandal involving four players. >> i think it's a shock, unsettling feeling. >> reporter: the four players stand accused of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old unconscious woman in june. they're accused of taking part in an attempted cover up. >> if the allegations are true, then i cannot believe that something like that could happen here. >> that took over the show.

>> reporter: a former vanderbilt athlete has covered the team on radio for 20 years. he said the allegations immediately bring to mind other sexual assault cases that involved players like the one at steubenville. he said vanderbilt's response was quick and firm. >> they acted as an unit. they banned the kids from the campus. they kicked them off the team. >> all right, we had some problems with that story. that was jonathan martin reporting. the nixon library has released the final installment of the former president's secretly recorded oval office phone calls and meetings. on one of the tapes ronald reagan said of watergate, this, too, shall pass. of course it didn't. we all know that nixon resigned in 1974. the national security agency is under fire. according i to new information e

nsa collected 56,000 e-mails of americans with no connection to terrorism. it was revealed that they classified three secret court continues and they found ways to limit the information it collects and how long it keeps it. that will do it for this edition of al jazeera news. i'm stephanie sy. we're back at 4:00 a.m. eastern with another news update. thanks so much for watching, and you, of course, can get news all day any time at www.america.aljazeera.com. the water -- it requires this new warning.